Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: bubby on June 23, 2017, 08:09:44 am
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I was wondering if any of ya'll wanted to share what you did for fun as a kid growing up, besides hunting and fishing. I used to rodeo some from 6 yrs old on up(http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224858_zpsgvitzgvy.jpg) (http://s623.photobucket.com/user/bubncheryl/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224858_zpsgvitzgvy.jpg.html)
(http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224833_zpsy8ebccvn.jpg) (http://s623.photobucket.com/user/bubncheryl/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224833_zpsy8ebccvn.jpg.html)
(http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224708_zpssjxb8riu.jpg) (http://s623.photobucket.com/user/bubncheryl/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224708_zpssjxb8riu.jpg.html)
(http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224638_zps6s97anzz.jpg) (http://s623.photobucket.com/user/bubncheryl/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224638_zps6s97anzz.jpg.html)
(http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224805_zps8pnihjmw.jpg) (http://s623.photobucket.com/user/bubncheryl/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224805_zps8pnihjmw.jpg.html)
(http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/bubncheryl/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224735_zpsvrnsnsxt.jpg) (http://s623.photobucket.com/user/bubncheryl/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20170622_224735_zpsvrnsnsxt.jpg.html)
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I was born with a fishing pole in my hand. Neither of my families are much for fishing, but somehow I was born to love it. I cant remember not being obsessed with it. Still am ;)
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Thats a nice fish Chris
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An ice cream truck driver pulled over and wanted to give me $20 for it, no deal! We grew up flat azz broke with nothing but government food and hand me down clothes. This pic was from 1984 or so, I still wouldn't take his money. That 24" of pike meant the world to me.
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Being flat ass broke might just be a theme here too😉
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I grew up in east Tennessee near a huge lake. We spent our time fishing and swimming in the lake, trout fishing in the tail water below the dam (Norris dam and lake), exploring the multitude of caves in the area, hunting squirrels and rabbits and roaming the woods. We rode our bikes everywhere, 5 miles to fish or 20 it was all the same.
We would meet up and begin our adventures, as long as we were home for supper we had free range to go and do whatever we wanted to. Where I lived there were no drugs, crime, or perverts snatching kids, this was during the 50s and early 60s.
We all played little league baseball in the summers, it was so different from today. I rode my bike to the game with my glove hanging from my handle bar. Parents almost never came to watch, it was all about the kids. With two complete teams their might be 5 parents in the stands watching the game. I never saw a parent contest a call, shout at an ump or player or make an ass of themselves like they do nowadays.
I was in an active Boy Scout troop that camped and hiked all over, we spent a lot of time in the Smoky Mountains.
This childhood shaped my life and made me what I am today. Looking at what we had when I was growing up compared to what's available for today's kids, I feel sorry for them.
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I grew up just a couple hours shy of Pensacola on the Alabama side and my dad's entire family was from the panhandle. So if I wasn't playing baseball or football on the weekends we'd go down there and they had this little house my grandad built (which is probably what draws me down to Pappy's all the time :) ) and we'd stay there and get up at 4:00 and take one of the wooden jon boats Paw Paw made and go out fishing. Up until his 80s he'd scull the boat with one hand and fish with the other with my dad and I in there. We'd catch about 80 bluegill and bring them back and I'd have to clean them all and the family would get together for some guitar and horseshoes and a fish fry.
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If you guys have any pics post them
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Great post Bubby. It's no wonder your knees are titanium after seeing what you used to do. I'm impressed with quality of those tintype action pictures ;D
Nice fish Pearly. I didn't know you had an older brother ???
I spent most of my time chasing critters when I was young. We have a very small pond on our property and I think I caught every bluegill in there at least 3 times. I loved catching snakes, frogs, turtles, crawdads in the creek. My uncle kept me supplied with bricks of black cat fire crackers. I blew a lot of stuff up, including some of the small animals I would catch :-[ Somebody gave me a few golf clubs when I was in the 3rd grade and I spent a lot of time swinging those. I've shot a bow for as long as I can remember. They had wheels on them back then. I'll try to find some old pictures.
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Mostly we worked. That's what all of the kids I grew up with did. We spent a lot of time hoeing weedy Sugarbeets. My dad said he'd give us .14 cents a row one year 1/2 mile long rows. We were thrilled because we always just did it with out pay anyway. When we finally finished a couple months later he said, "you all did a good job. How about we just take a day at the beach instead of $. We were thrilled I can still remember that day a the beach. We also had good jobs like baling hay and straw, milking cows and best of all driving tractors. Not sure why I love it but I do love growing up on the farm. It sure made me the person I am today.
We worked hard but when we got the chance we played hard to. Lots of big families and cousins. We always could get enough together for a cow pasture ball game, or play 500. We also had some gravel pits close by. At the end of a long hot day we would swim there. Everyone swam there. We would also have our own Rodeo riding our steers in the barn. Dad didn't really approve of this though. We rode bikes everywhere. We would scrung through the local dump for old broken toys, my neighbor bless his soul would fix them up for us. We built Forts and tree houses. One year we got to play little league. I still remember trying out in my work shoes. Never had a pair of tennis shoes. It was the first time I remember seeing the "city kids". Our city had a population of around 2000. They teased me because of my shoes but they soon found out we could play ball. When I was in the fifth grade we went to the Public School in the "city" I met lots of new friends and developed a pretty good social life. We partied pretty hard just like we worked. I thank the Lord I survived, not all of us did. I wouldn't trade my childhood for anyone's. Sometimes I think I'm still living it.
Bjrogg
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I'm turning 70 on Monday so I've been doing a lot of reminiscing. I lived in a small town(this one, it was just smaller then ;D) so I had running shoes ;D. We spent a lot of time building forts and shooting songbirds with a BB gun. In those days if you saw a kid going into the bush without a gun it was suspicious. Made a lot of bows and arrows. Actually killed a robin with one. I can remember my Dad bringing me a piece of Yew from the bush, must have been almost 60 years ago. I also remember going with him to get me some Crabapple. Still two of my favourite woods. Learned how to make black powder and blew up a lot of stuff. Then I discovered fishing. Had to ride my bike 4 or 5 miles to the nearest good spot for trout but the saltwater wharf was only two blocks from my house. We would catch Rock Cod and sell them to the fish and chip shop for 10 cents each or trade them for chips and use some of the chips for bait to catch more. Then cars and drag racing on the highway north of town. Then I discovered beer and the next twenty years went pretty fast. Been dry now for 27 years. And that's the Readers Digest version of my life.
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The usual of an Iowa farm kid I'd say on a farm.Lots of work with livestock and pulling weeds.Baling hay and cutting silage.Rode a lot of horse in my early teens.Athletic sports activities from school took a lot of my time.All through this though a .22 cal.rifle and a fishing rod and a heinz 57 dog were my best friends.Seemed like never a dull moment.
Left the house out of high school working construction into an almost break even type life helping my dad at times farming yet.When he retired I took over the farm paying him rent for 20 years.Acquired hobbies like buckskinning and coon hunting during those years.Then as it is retired now into a place back in the sticks living my childhood over again.
One reason why I think this bow making is rewarding and fun really.On a farm your used to hardships.Things can go wrong in lots of ways.Weather is the boss.Learn to work with her.Pick yourself up and do it again.Same way with breaking bows.You can't be afraid to fail.
I'll always be eternally thankful that I had the parents and enviornment that I was born into.Learned the value of a dollar and how to live proper.
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Picture of old Ernie on the tree with a coon above him down along one of my favorite rivers I used to hunt along.The Rock river.
(http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad41/Beadman1/PictureEdspictures%20073_zpsmkygzwfn.jpg) (http://s920.photobucket.com/user/Beadman1/media/PictureEdspictures%20073_zpsmkygzwfn.jpg.html)
Picture at Black & Tan days in 1994.He won the whole ball of wax.King of the hunt.A three night hunt against over 1100 dogs.
(http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad41/Beadman1/PictureEdspictures%20021_zpsxolnuuqv.jpg) (http://s920.photobucket.com/user/Beadman1/media/PictureEdspictures%20021_zpsxolnuuqv.jpg.html)
Another pic back home showing it better.
(http://i920.photobucket.com/albums/ad41/Beadman1/PictureEdspictures%20164_zps9jrbdklu.jpg) (http://s920.photobucket.com/user/Beadman1/media/PictureEdspictures%20164_zps9jrbdklu.jpg.html)
He was just 1 individual out of my kennel.I was blessed to have at least 7 or 8 more hounds half of them females[mother/aunt/niece/ and many first cousins] that were just as good as him.His littermates won many national hunts too.
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My kinda tree hugger Ed. He's a bruiser, darn nice looking hound.
Bjrogg
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That's a respectable beard Ed!
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Played a lot of sports as a kid...football and baseball...if wasn't for football I would have walk around a lot better the last few years..:) but growing up in the city with a Dad that love the "country " was great. It was a lot of fun growing up in the city. but as a youngster I loved every opportunity I had with my dad to get into the "country" as we call it. And do some rabbit and squirrel hunting ...There were hardly no deer in Kentucky when I was a kid.....so Dad and I didn't hunt them...but the best time I had was squirrel hunting. My dad would ask the farmer or land owner if we could squirrel hunt, and we would show up that Saturday morning, before sunrise, right where we said we would park car and leave the place cleaner than we found it. We had a great time... Every Christmas weekend Dad & I would take time to make the rounds to all of our hunting and fishing places and deliver a box of candy or a cake that my mother would bake, thanking them for the opportunity to hunt or fish their property. Yea.. the cakes went to the best hunting/fishing places... :) Those memories hang with me the most and forever......
Damn this post got to me....
Thanks DAD
DBar
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bjrogg and OO....He was a bruiser.Old Ernie weighed close to 70#'s in hunting shape.A few knuckles on his back showing along with a few ribs showing.Back legs hard as concrete.They had to be thataway elsewise they could'nt handle the heat.I took on all comers with him.Bear dogs/PKC champions you name it of any breed.He was a thorough bred I tell ya.
Sorry if I sound exempletive about the hound but when campaigning hounds they become like family and are with you every night and day and get beat up by mean dogs and many other things in those hunts.
I let that beard grow for 14 years Clint and it was actually close to 14" long back then.Now it's all salt and peppered but mostly salt.
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Eric K. and I apparently had identical childhoods. Also, seems I got interested in girls at a young age. >:D
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Eric K. and I had mostly identical childhoods. Also, seems I got interested in girls at a young age. >:D
The girls church camp being in the church across from the building we had scouts in, was the reason i was asked to leave the scouts (A). Yikes that really sounds bad all in a sentance🙃
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Cool post, Bill.
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I used to gather corn cobs picked by the chickens, and chicken feathers. Insert fearhers by the quil into the end of the cob, and you have a poor boys nerf football. Put a shapened stick in the other end, you have poor boy darts. )P(
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For some reason a lot of my childhood is a blur. I do remember fishing with pipe bombs filled with gunpowder and set off with a car battery and also with a case of hand grenades someone's older brother brought back from Nam. Dropped out of school at 16 and started work full time so my growing up stopped early (or probably never finished). Before that we worked tobacco in the summers (Connecticut shade grown), learned how to drink things that weren't soda, and smoke things that weren't tobacco.
I actually got into real fishing and some hunting later in life. :-M :-D )F( -C-
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I was a natural born killer in my youth. By the age of 14 I could out hunt and out fish all my buddies and most adults. I didn't play team sports, spent most of my time fishing and hunting with my dog Skipper. Hunting became too easy with a gun so that's why I started hunting with a bow. I started fly fishing when I was 14 , that was 51 years ago. Weren't many fly fisherman in those days. Funny thing is there were no videos to teach you how to do things, we had to learn the hard way. Started Turkey hunting with a bow in the early 70's. Those were some good times.
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My dad was an archery teacher at the military base where he worked and made bows and arrows as well so archery has always been a part of me. Never had much interest in fishing but hunting on the other hand was a passion of mine, not as much anymore.
I have to admit I kind of liked making things go boom as well. Working at a motorcycle shop with access to acetylene torches sort of satisfied that need a bit. Filling inflatable kids toys with the right mix and setting them off with a fuse produces impressive explosions and doing so just before dark is visually stunning.
Motorcycles were also in my blood for many of my younger years, making them go fast and racing them. Kind of screwed up parts of my body doing that.
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I found some old pictures to post. I think this is where I got my creativity for some of the stuff that I build. My grandpa was always building stuff or working on projects. I would walk to his house almost every day and help out. This little barn is still standing. I had our house built right next to it.
(http://i.imgur.com/gmW1H3u.jpg?1)
I loved to go fishing
(http://i.imgur.com/BLtzs5U.jpg?1)
And yes, that is an awesome Alf shirt
(http://i.imgur.com/i80h46L.jpg?1)
(http://i.imgur.com/Fvzgc4P.jpg?1)
I've been involved in deer hunting since before I was born. My mom was tracking a deer with my Dad when she was very pregnant. She took a bad fall on a hillside. That was one month before I was born.
(http://i.imgur.com/mLuWooY.jpg?1)
My first deer
(http://i.imgur.com/8Vwb1B5.jpg?1)
I was a decent rabbit dog also. My job was to jump on the brush piles and scare them out.
(http://i.imgur.com/T8zFYGc.jpg?1)
I wish I still had this jacket
(http://i.imgur.com/rrbniGd.jpg?1)
(http://i.imgur.com/sy1EsNe.jpg?1)
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Those are some great pics Clint
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Nice pictures Clint. It looks like your grandpa could see you were picking it up. You can tell by the way he's watching you.
Bjrogg
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My immediate family wasn't into outdoor stuff. My Dad was a Police Court Judge and wouldn't allow guns in our house, not even BB guns. Our neighbors across the street were outdoor folks and my Dad did let Mr. Waite teach us about guns, gun safety and boats and all that went along with them so I did have exposure to the outdoors. My Dad's sister, aunt Mary was a fisherwoman. She and a boyfriend would take my older brother and myself(when I came of age)saltwater fishing in Coastal SC so I got some great exposure that way.
My Mom's side of the family were outdoors people but they lived in Pensacola Fla so we only saw them every July. They had a place on Pensacola Bay where we would stay and we fished, crabbed and went flounder constantly while we were there. My Grandpa was an avid deep sea fisherman and built his own inboard engine cabin boat(The Duchess, named for my Mom) and built all of his deep sea split bamboo rods. I wish I had more time to spend with him but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
I didn't start hunting until I was 28 years old. That was the year my wife and I got married(1978) and moved to Bluffton SC. That Christmas Marcia gave me a TC Hawkins .50 cal. black powder gun and I killed my first 2 deer with it. In those days all my hunting buddies told me to get a "real" gun! Now they tell me to get a real bow. ::) I hunted and fished the coastal marshes with my good buddy, Richard for many years and still do at least once a year at his family property in Oglethorpe Co. GA and sometimes in Coastal SC.
My wife and I have lived on our 25 ac here in the Mountains of SW North Carolina for the last 26 years. I have hunted here a few times but when you name the deer on your property it is hard to shoot them. ;)
We both love living is the country and both love all the wildlife we have here plus the native wildflowers and other aspects of being outdoors.
My first real bow was a 45# Shakespeare recurve I retrieved from a storage building that was going to be demolished. I shot whatever arrows I could find. I got into compounds shortly after($50 Bear Blacktail Hunter from a flea market) and killed my first archery deer with it. After a few years I bought a PSE Nova compound and killed a few more deer until I got tired of all the Geegaws that went along with that craze. I decided to switch to the light side(traditional) after killing my biggest archery deer at the crack of dawn. I was using a lighted pendulum sight(one of the geegaws) and when I came to full draw the light quit working so I leveled off and took the shot. My first instinctive kill.
After that I bought a custom recurve and shot a big 8pt but never recovered it. The deer did recover and was marking it's scrapes 2 weeks later. I could identify him by an unusual hoof print. Not too long after that(about 1999) I bought a Treadway Longbow and killed my first trad deer, a doe that was standing 8' from my tree.
It was about 1988 that I started getting interested in primitive archery. Not many folks built wood bows back then but with the help of books by Jay Massey, Paul Comstock, Jim Hamm, William Vonderhey and others the journey began. I do have to give credit to Primitive Archer Magazine and the great folks on this wonderful site for helping make my bent sticks the new "real" bows.
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As a kid on the farm and liking animals I think I was bit,bucked,butted,stung,stomped and generally beat up by every kind of animal in Iowa.Used to drive my mother nuts.On the other hand my Dad gave me free will to find out about things.Was fairly active I guess.A memory I have is once I was throwing a screw driver sticking it into 9" by 9" railroad sill of a building and the screw driver bounced straight back funny right back at me....lol.It went right through my ear and hung there.I screamed of course.My Dad was close by and came to see what was wrong.I can remember vividly what he said.Ohhhh son you got a screw driver through your ear.....lol.He carries me up to the house and my mother has a heart attack[not literally].I think pop pulled it out and they took me to the doc.
I think my folks were surprised I stayed alive long enough to graduate high school.
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Great thread, I love reading this stuff, I must have been raised with Eric, he about covered it for me. :)
Clint loved the pictures, you haven't grown much have ya. ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D
Pappy
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My dad was heavily into fishing when I was a kid, mostly Trout but he liked Bass as well, and would drag us along to places most people wouldn't go; sometimes packing in several miles into secluded lakes. Here's some old pics from some of our fishing trips
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I grew up in the world of archery. Been shooting bow since I was five. Our family attended archery tournaments every weekend during the spring, summer an fall and shot in the winter . Never had a chance to play sports like baseball or football. Dad opened an archery shop in the early 60's and my brother and I worked in the shop after we got out of school. Dad got involved with Bear Archery, shooting for Bear and he was on Bears archery staff for 3 years. It was nothing to answer the phone in dads shop, Bear Archery of Muskegon and holler out, dad, Mr. Bears on the phone. I remember going to Grayling so dad could attend meetings and we would hang out at Bears Museum. There were four family members won several state archery championships. My dad was really good winning the Midwest Nationals twice in the 50's and my brother won a national archery championship in Watkins Glenn, New York.
I learned a lot about archery growing up in the shop.
It was after I got married that I/we competed in other sports. Wife and I started running and then doing short triathlons. We had to ditch the running because our feet went south but kept up the biking. I guess our claim to fame now is that we rode our bicycles across the United States, doing it in three summers.
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It was all about the outdoors for me. Mom used to throw me out in our fenced in backyard, turn on the hose and let me go (thus the pic). Lots of critter catching (snakes, toads, bugs, turtles, ect). My parents used to let me keep them for a few days then I'd put them back.
As I got older we started blowing stuff up too. Lots of M80s and mischief. Forts in the woods, BB guns, sneaking out to meet up with girls and I can't forget skateboarding.
Teenage years were spent playing guitar and seeing as many Grateful Dead concerts as possible.
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Great thread guys thanks for posting, sure glad they didn't have video games when I was a kid not that my parents would have ever let me play them anyway.
Bjrogg
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Love those pictures, Marc.
Clint may not have growed much, but he sure got less handsome!
Me, in the front wearing the "too small but fav" jacket, at a neighbor girl's birthday party, circa 1955.
(http://i884.photobucket.com/albums/ac48/knolltop314/18034135_10212691976593726_7558114598016865975_n.jpg)
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And already looking grumpy😎
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what a great thread... I only remember the early years playin outside, building forts runnin around in the woods. bent sapling bows and sharp stix. lots of fishin and catchin snakes and frogs and lightning bugs. around 12 years old started skateboarding and took that pretty serious for about 10 years. at 16 got my first bass guitar and started playin in a couple punk bands. than in my 20's got into playin with a descent group of guys and did some touring up and down the east coast and during all that time got into bowhuntin pretty hard, started with a compound and quikly got bored with that and wanted to learn to hunt the hard way. traded my compound set up for an old bear black bear #45 recurve and than regressed to primitive archery... one big memory of bein a wee lass was Dad was a turtle trapper and duck hunter, man durin the summer there would be headless snapping turtles walkin all around the yard and I walk around and put stix in their mouths and carry em around.. snappers don't know their dead even with their head clean off they still bite...great thread, thanx bubby
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This is a great thread. It dawned on me that I am 52 years old and still doing the same things for fun that I did when I was 10. I refuse to grow up if it involves not fishing and hunting. The one thing I miss from my boyhood days is shooting cans and bottles at the dump. Back in the seventies and eighties in my part of the world, you could always find a spot down a dirt road somewhere that was filled with likely targets for a boy with a .22 rifle. Of course, these were unsightly and highly illegal spots where people "hauled off" their unwanted junk and the country side is more beautiful without them, but I would be straying from the truth if I said that I didn't miss them. Ammunition was dirt cheap and me and my buddies shot all the time. I grew up in a rural area that was surrounded by miles and miles of coal and steel company land that we had free run of. It was a great place to be a kid. Weekends were spent camping on the creek, squirrel hunting, coon hunting, running trot lines, or Lord knows what else... It was fun.
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Being the tomboy I was, I did a lot of building forts, exploring woods in the neighborhood, climbing (and falling out of) a lot trees, especially my grandmothers ginormous magnolia tree. Liked to make rapids with the rocks in the creek. Skip rocks on the creeks. We collected tadpoles and caterpillars, and there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, about 30 caterpillars in one aquarium is not a pretty sight. My sister and I would go bike riding everywhere, especially on dirt roads and dirt bike trails because we liked the hills and bumps lol. We were in the Girl Scouts, so we did camping with them, as well as with my family. When we visited the Grandparents it was at the lake where we did fishing and watersports in North Carolina, or when in VA we were at the beach and playing with hot wheels with my boy cousins.
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That cool Emennis, I had a few Tomboy cousins that where all right. Glad to here from another.
Bjrogg
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Grew up in the city, got exposed to fishing early, got exposed to archery at summer camps, learned to shoot rifles and shotguns by about 12, wasn't much for tests in school, but managed to get by(underachieving) they called it. Rode our bikes almost everywhere, played football 1 year in high school, run track 2 years, was too weird for most of the other city kids who didn't get to get out of town much. Had a couple or 3,4 girlfriends, like most guys, not lasting too long, or too permanent!
And that was just into the mid/late 50's.
Hawkdancer